Ohio Sen. Husted petitions court to reinstate voting eligibility after ruling by SOS Brunner

  State Senator Jon A. Husted

Columbus, Ohio: State Senator Jon A Husted (R-Kettering) must have known Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner would disqualify him from voting in his Sixth Senate District near Dayton, because in short order after she made her ruling late Monday evening, he submitted an appeal Tuesday to the Supreme Court of Ohio (SCO) to grant him relief by reinstating him as a "properly registered and qualified elector in Montgomery County," where he says he has resided over two decades and to where he says he will return once his duties as an elected employee of the state allows him to do so.

Yesterday, Brunner ruled that Husted, a sitting member of the Ohio Senate and the Ohio GOP's candidate to run for Brunner's job next year, cannot vote in the district he represents in the General Assembly, based on her reading of the state constitution and certain state laws that largely relied on the fact that his wife and family live in a nearby suburb of Columbus, the state capital.

Husted appeals to Ohio Supreme Court for relief on residency for voting

Husted and the three lawyers from the Columbus law firm of Bricker & Eckler LLP representing him, chastised Brunner in a long list that included abusing her discretion, disregarding a pertinent provision of the Ohio Constitution and other state laws, ignoring the facts, gathering information outside of a prescribed process and erroneously concluding that he was not a resident of Montgomery County and did not intend to return there.

Brunner came to office in 2006 when Democrats won four of five statewide seats from Republicans who had controlled them for decades but whose antics in office lead to various scandals that turned voters sour on them. In the third year of her first term, some of her critics are accusing her of doing a "half Palin," in that she is stepping down from a position she said she would run for again when she ran for office the first time to run in the Democratic primary next year for the US senate seat being vacated by George V. Voinovich.

Husted and his attorneys, rebutting Brunner's 12-page decision, argued in their appeal to the Court that he has lived in Montgomery County for the previous twenty-three years, and that he owns a home there and that he has every intention of returning there when his service in Columbus comes to a close.

The matter, saturated with partisan politics and guaranteed to cause flack for all involved, started in October of 2008, when a progressive advocacy group questioned whether Husted is eligible to vote at his residence, given he lives with his wife and two children live in the affluent Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington, where his wife, who he married in 2005, owns a home and has a going business concern.

Since the fall of 2008, the matter has twice bounced back and forth between the Montgomery County Board of Elections and SOS Brunner, who after months of not breaking a tie vote, as the authority of her office allows gives her sole discretion to do, was ordered last week in a 6-1 decision by the SCO to render her decision in not more than seven days from a week ago Monday.

Husted said Brunner could have and should have broken the tie vote the first time it came to her in February of this year, but failed to do it then and the second time it arrived at her desk in late June, He said she then stretched the matter out by improperly gathering information that was not in the record and that not presented to Husted, who can only be a candidate for SOS next year if his voting eligibility in his home district of Kettering is reinstated by the Court.

Husted needs relief by court to run for secretary of state next year

Based on Brunner's ruling, Husted claims that the combination of the delay she caused and of the import of her ruling have "jeopardized" his "ability to vote in Ohio and run for elected office."

Ohio election law requires an elected official to be registered to vote and reside in the county where that person is registered to vote for at least thirty (30) days before an election, in order to be validly registered to vote in that election.

Based on this criteria, Husted must be registered to vote on or before this October 5 to vote in the November general election.

Husted argues he cannot register to vote in any other county because he has not legally resided in nor intends to reside in any county except Montgomery County. Other voices, however, say Husted will still be able to run for statwide office, but he'll have to do so from Franklin, not Montgomery County, should Brunner's decision remain in effect.

Hence, as a candidate for statewide elective office, he must circulate, and then file a declaration of candidacy, on or not later than seventy-five (75) days before the primary election. Husted's declaration of candidacy form requires him to "attest, under penalty of election law, that he is a 'qualified elector' of his 'voting residence."

Asking for the Court to grant him relief by declaring his is still a resident of Montgomery County, Husted says Brunner's actions have now put all that into jeopardy.

For more info: 

Husted's appeal to the court Tuesday: http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/tempx/651725.pdf